Snow projector



Dec. 30, 1952 A. LAMY 2,623,308

SNOW PROJECTOR Filed Nov. 14, 1947 2 SHEETS-SHEET l I Q 21 flrmazzd am Attorneys Inventor Dec. 30, 1952 LAMY 2,623,308

SNQW PROJECTOR EiledNov. 14, 1947 2SHEETS-SHEET2 Inventor 47' walla/r1 Patented Dec. 30, 1952 SN OW PROJECTOR Armand Lamy, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, assignor of one-half to Ubald Boisvert, Outremont, Quebec, Canada Application November 14, 1947, Serial No. 785,931 In Canada June 27, 1945 Section 1, Public Law 690, August8, 1946 Patent expires June 27, 1965 1 Claim. 1

Thepresent invention relates to snow-removing devicesand, more particularly, to a rotary apparatus adapted to project snow at a distance. The main object of the invention resides in theprovision of highly efficient means for removing snow from roads, streets and the like. Another object is the provision of means of the character described which are in the form of a light-weight attachment for light trucks and only, an embodiment of the invention is shown in the annexed drawings wherein Figure 1 is a side elevational view of the snow projector attachment connected in front of a truck indicated in dotted lines,

Figure 2 is a front elevational view of the attachment,

Figure B is aplan view thereof,

Figure 4 is a part horizontal section taken through the mechanism at approximately halfway therethrough,

Figure 5 is an enlarged constructional detail of a gear changing mechanism,

Figure 6 is a vertical section through the projector showing the same arranged for vertical projection, and

Figure 7 is a similar view with the projector in position for lateral horizontal discharge.

Referring to the drawings, wherein similar reference characters represent corresponding parts throughout, it will be seen that, in Figure 1, the

'attachmenbof the invention is adapted to be secured tothe front part of a motor vehicle, indicated in general by the reference character T. For that purpose, a bracket It may be disposed in front of said vehicle and properly secured to the frame or chassis thereof and to which bracket the attachment is adapted to be connected by means to be described subsequently. The'mechanism, as a whole, is supported on skids 'or'runners l l consisting of a channeled iron disi'p'osed l'ongitudinallyat both sides of the bed l2 acting as a'base for the various elements of the attachment. To the frontedge of said bed, a

cutter bar I3 is provided, which is downwardly directed to act as a lip for scraping and facilitating the entry of snow into the conveying casing [4.

Said casing affects very much the generalshape of a cylinder, a segment of which has been cut longitudinally to form the mouth into which the snow is admitted; this month is directed towards the front'of the apparatus, or in the direction in which the said apparatus is normally propelled.

Disposed within the cylindrical casing 14, there is mounted a rotary shaft 15 suitably journalled at [6 in both ends of the casing and one end of which extends slightly out at H to receive a sprocket gear the purposeof which will be described lateron. Said shaft is additionally supported in the middle by an intermediate bearing [8, held at the end of a bracket IS for reinforcing purposes and to prevent whipping of the shaft. As shown to advantage in Figs. 2 and 4,

the said bearing 18 is disposed substantially in front. Obviously, when the screw 20 is rotated inproper direction, material engaged thereby,

such as snow, will be displaced from the right to the left towards the comminuting discs 2|.

Said discs 2| are mounted on the left hand portion of the shaft I5 in mutually spaced relation and provided with circumferential teeth 22 alternately bent in opposed directions. Said teeth act very much like the teeth of a saw to cut and disintegrate whatever ice formation may be encountered during the snow clearing operation.

In other words, the discs above have no conveying action other than c'omminuting'or disintegrating the snow or ice immediately in front thereof and also the snow conveyed by the conveying screw 20.

As depicted more particularly in Figures 2, 3 and 4, the left hand side of the casing I4 is provided, at the back thereof, with a circular housing 25 the centre of which is slightly higher than the centre of shaft I5, as shown in Fig. 2. The said housing opens into the casing I4 and the upper part thereof connects to the top of the casing by means of a sector-shaped hood '26 so that the entire area of the housing shall communicate with the casing. In the back wall 21 of the housing, in the center thereof, there'is mounted'a sleeve 28 supporting a ball bearing 29 which, in turn, is adapted to journal the hub 30 of an impeller comprised of radial blades 3|, four of which are shown in Figures 2, 6 and'7.

The housing just described is completed by the addition of slides 32 disposed vertically at the left end thereof (see Figures 3 and 4) and which slides are additionally reinforced by means of the web 33; said slides are adapted to receive a sliding trap 34 which, when raised as in Figure '7, is calculated to free an outlet aperture 35 through which the snow is to be expelled. Finally, the other end of the housing, at the right hand stop thereof, is provided with an outlet 36 to which an outlet pipe 31 is adapted, which pipe may be surmounted by the deflector 38 for a purpose to be pointed out later on.

The actuating means for the mechanisms just described comprise the gasoline engine if! which acts as a power plant separate from that of the truck or other propelling vehicle, which engine, disposed at the right rear of the bed l2, being fed from fuel stored in the tank 41 to the rear left of said bed. The said engine may include the normal and usual multi-speed transmission 42, which transmission is connected directly to a reversing gear-box 633 disposed in the approximate rear center of the bed and through which box the actuating power for the impeller, conveyor and ccmminuting discs is transmitted.

Referring to Figure 4, it will be seen that the gear-box t3 includes a main shaft it which may be a continuation of the shaft in transmission t?! or suitably connected therewith, which shaft has mounted thereon a driving gear it and a reversing gear 4'5. The driving gear 55 meshes with an intermediate gear 43 mounted on a shaft which extends outside of the gear box and the outer end of which is provided with a sprocket or the like over which a sprocket chain 59 is suitably trained for driving a second shaft 55 mounted remotely from the first and which shaft 5! extends out of a protective casing 52 enclosing the above sprocket and the driving chain. The shaft 5!, through the intermediary of universal joints 53 and an intermediate shaft 5 3, is adapted to actuate a sprocket and chain mechanism enclosed in casing 55 and adapted to drive shaft Iii through the medium of a sprocket mounted over extension ll of shaft 55. Thus, the pinion 48 revolving constantly in a given direction, the

conveyor 2i! and the discs 2! are adapted to be driven in one direction at a speed controlled by the transmission 42.

A third shaft 68 is journalled in the gear box parallel to the shaft 4'5 and so mounted as to extend at the left, outside the box. A sliding gear 61' is movable longitudinally on said shaft and keyed therewith by th key 62. lhis gear includes a grooved hub 53 on one side thereof and a toothed extension $5 on the other side. A fork of; engages the groove of the hub to move the gearin or out of engagement with the reversing gear il. Securely mounted on the shaft to, and meshing with the intermediate gear it, there is disposed a pinion 6e having an annular extension El toothed internally and adapted to mesh with the teeth of the gear extension Ed. Thus, according to the movement of the fork 65, the gear 6i may be meshed with M and the extension cs thereof withdrawn from engagewith the annular extension El of the gear Therefore, the shaft en will be driven in one direction when the gear is pushed so as to be disengaged from if and the teeth of 5% and 655 mesh together, the shaft 8i! will revolve in the opposite direction due to the introduction of the gear til reversin the movement. (See Figures 4 and 5.)

As shown in Figure 4, the shaft 60 is intended to drive a bevel pinion is enclosed within an extension of the sleeve 28, which pinion meshes with another pinion 'l'l disposed at the end of a shaft 72 engaging the hub 36 of the impeller. The connection between the pinion l0 and the shaft 60 is made by means of the universal joints i5 and a connection shaft 16 to permit taking up small errors of alignment.

From the foregoing description partaining to the gear-box as, it will be evident that the impeller may be actuated in clockwise or counterclockwise direction as shown in Figures 6 and '7. This is easily efiectuateol by proper manipulation of the lever T3 which is an extension of the fork G5 extending outside of the gear box.

When the impeller is rotated in clockwise direction (Fig. 7) and the slide 34 raised to uncover the opening 35, the impeller is adapted to project the snow directly out of the housing 25 by means of a scooping action quite unlike the centrifugal action of the conventional snow blowers. In other words, the blades of the impeller acts as so many spades which might be said to simply shovel the snow directly outside. Whenever it is desired to project the snow in opposite directions, the slide 3 3 is closed and the rotation of the impeller reversed, whereby its movement will now be counter-clockwise as shown in Figure 6. In that case, the snow will be projected into the outlet pipe 37 which may be rotated and the snow spray more or less elevated according to the position of the deflector 38.

From the foregoing description, it will be apparent that the present invention is a useful advance of the art in that it enables, in an extremely simple mechanism, the efficient removal of snow from streets, roads and other public thoroughfares. The said mechanism, due to the particular arrangement of the impeller which projects the snow directly outside of the housing without use of centrifugal force, considerably diminishes the friction losses present in conventional devices and, therefore, enables the apparatus to operate with a minimum of power. The entire device is easily attachable to ordinary vehicles which, in summer time, are available for other functions. The attachmentis easily made by means of the bracket It already described and vertical extensions 80 disposed at the side of the bed [2. Since the apparatus is self-driven by means of its own power plant, the vehicle is left in its original form and complicated transmission systems dispensed with.

It must be understood that various changes as to the size, shape and arrangement of partsmay be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the subjoined claim.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

A snow projector adapted to be attached in front of a motor vehicle, comprising an open front substantially cylindrical ca sing disposed transversely to the direction of movement of said vehicle, a housing secured behind one end of said casing and in communication therewith, a rotary bladed impeller mounted in said housing having its axis disposed at right angles to the axis of said casing, a rotary shaft journalled in both ends of said casing and coaxial therewith, an endless screw conveyor mounted on the end portion of said shaft away from said housing, a plurality of comminuting closely spaced parallel discs keyed to the other end portion of said shaft immediately in front of said impeller and extending substantially the whole length of the communication between said casing and. housing, said discs having circumferentially spaced sideways projecting integral teeth alternately bent in opposite directions, and means for actuating said impeller and said shaft, the diameters of said endless screw'and discs being substantially the same and slightly smaller than the diameter of said casing whereby the impeller will only receive comminuted snow.

ARMAN D LAMY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

Number UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Milne et a1. Nov. 24, 1925 Scruggins Dec. 8, 1925 Krizer Apr. 27, 1926 Sicard Feb. 26, 1929 Hineline July 14, 1931 La Clair Aug. 22, 1933 Klauer Jan. 17, 1939 Watkins July 18, 1939 Morse et al. Mar. 30, 1943 Piltz July 18, 1944 

